poignant moment's.

George Fox University students, a Jewish Synagogue, and the
death of Pope John Paul II.

The mention of these three subjects may not be familiar but yesterday
I became aware of the significance of them. Three of my classmates and
I had the unique opportunity and privilege to attend a Shabbat service
at a Portland Synagogue as part of our World Religions class. All three of
my classmates and I are students at George Fox University and were
to visit a Jewish synagoge as part of a group project.

We attended services at Havurah Shalom and enjoyed the warm
welcome of the members who welcomed us into their synagogue.
During the service, which was a fascinating introduction to Judaism,
the Rabbi included Pope John Paul II's name during a special prayer
time for people who were in the hospital or were homebound. I thought
this was really interesting as I sat there trying to absorb the service that
a Rabbi would mention the Pope in a special prayer. Later in the
afternoon, Pope John Paul has died in his Vatican apartment. The
time of death was when we were visiting the Jewish synagogue. The
whole morning brought poignant moments like this for my classmates
and I were able to witness a Shabbat service.

Here we were students of a Christian college visiting a Jewish synagogue
hearing a special prayer said for the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
God has truly blessed us as Christians to be able to try to understand the
significance of what different faith groups bring into our world. I enjoyed
the opportunity we shared yesterday and will probably have thoughts
of Saturday's service for quite some time.

The highlight of the visit to Havurah Shalom for me personally was when
the Torah was brought out to be walked around the audiance and read by
a variety of men and women. I had a few tears when the Ark was open
and the Torah was read because I thought back to the visit I had in 1990
to the city of Jerusalem, Isreal.